A Behind-the-Scenes Look at One of Science Fiction’s Most Prolific Authors, Kim Stanley Robinson
Where the writer started and how he uses fiction to express his views
Growing up, Kim Stanely Robinson played in the orange and avocado groves of 1950s Orange County, Calif.
Toy bow-and-arrow in hand, Robinson ran and chased rabbits. But then, in the 1960s, Robinson watched crews tear out the playground of his youth for subdivisions and freeways.
“It was an industrial operation: come in, cut ’em down, chop ’em up,” he said. The experience informed Robinson’s worldview and his art.
It All Started with Dick
Robinson discovered new wave science fiction in the 1970s. The literary movement, popularized by Philip K. Dick, focused more on writing and less on science. And, in new wave science fiction, Robinson found stories that reflected how he felt about the rapid demolition of the orchards of Orange County.
Robinson did his Ph.D. thesis on Dick. He earned his degree in 1982 and two years later turned his thesis into the book The Novels of Philip K. Dick. That same year, Robinson produced his first novel, The Wild Shore. It’s about the rebuilding of a post-nuclear war California in a more ecologically…
